Onslow County school buses using extended stop arms

ONSLOW COUNTY, N.C -- Onslow County Schools is trying out a new safety feature to keep students safe.

Starting this school year, 27 buses will be equipped with extended stop arms thanks to state funding.

The new stop arms add an additional four and a half feet to the original stop arms, reaching a total of six and a half feet into the roadway.

Last March, an Onslow county student died when a driver ran a stop arm.

Now, the county hopes to do more to grab a driver's attention.

"The need for extended stop arms is for the safety of the students for Onslow schools, we're constantly battling people passing stop arms,” said Mike Henderson, Transportation Director with Onslow County Schools. “We probably have about 3,000 violations a year,” he added.

Each of the 27 buses will also be equipped with eight cameras to catch stop arm violators.

We should note that Onslow County is just one of 20 counties across the state already a part of the pilot program.